From Bayeux to Sarlat (Days 8 through 10)

Sorry for disappearing for a while. Nothing bad happened, it's just that the Wifi access in our Loire hotel was a little slow for the uploading of photos. So you're getting 3 days worth of commentary in one blog post.

Day 8 - Climbing the Mont

When we last left we'd just been turned away from both the Bayeux tapestry and the Bayeux Cathedral. Well, joy of joys, both were open the following morning. Pictures weren't allowed inside the Bayeux tapestry, but here's the general story provided by the very long piece of linen it's sewed on.

King Edward of Englad sent his half brother Harold to tell William of Normandy he could have the throne of England on Edward's death. During his journey across the channel, Harold got off course and then captured by some enemies for trespassing. William freed Harold, invited him along on a successful war campaign and eventually made him swear allegiance to William on two (yes, two) holy relics. Harold went back to England, waited for Edward to die, and crowned himself king. William, pissed as all get out, stormed across the channel and stuck a wayward arrow in Harold's eye.

Moral? The same as the one we got from our tour of the Normandy coast the day before. Don't break treaties of non-agression.

As usual, the cathedral was very pretty inside.

And it had some need and very old looking pictures in the crypts. [Note: Handler 1 almost never uses flash on her camera. So, if you see a scene that looks like it would have required a flash, it probably didn't. Please don't think Handler 1 goes around taking flash photos of everything, because she doesn't.]

It was time to jump in the car and take off across the Contentin peninsula, until we came to, medieval Mont St. Michel!

Mont St. Michel is surrounded by a giant tidal mud flat.

It's apparently been a tourist town ever since the 17th century or so, and the town is full of silly souvenier shops and creperies. Brittany (which is right next door to Mont St. Michel) is famous for its crepes. Mont St. Michel (as became obvious to the Handlers after trying some) is not.

The town did have a nice abbey at the very top of the mount. where the Handlers saw monks in North Face jackets and some interesting architecture.

Unfortunately, in order to arrive at our hotel in a timely manner, we had to skip Alligator Bay. Shucks!

We arrived at our hotel in Amboise to find it very nice, though not quite as nice as the place we had left.

Day 9 - Cruising the Loire Valley

The Loire valley is like a Who's Who of beautiful castles, and we had a number to visit today. First was Chambord, the largest, originally conceptualized as a hunting lodge for Francois I (which he eventually spent all of 70 some days of his reign living at). The size and splendor of this place encouraged Handler 2 to upgrade his feelings about Louis XIV to apply to all French kings.

"Hunting Lodge"

Chambord is famous for its spiral staircases (as shown here).

The next chateau on the lost was Chenonceau. Having been primarily built and desgned by women, this castle has a more refined air about it. The Handlers liked it better than Chambord because it was unpretentious (and much nicer to photograph).

It also had a labyrinth. The Handlers love a good labyrinth.

Where's David Bowie?

Since Handler 1 had missed out on a winery tour in Champagne, Handler 2 decided to placate her by offering her a tour of a winery in the Loire. What ensued was a 45 minute jaunt through old quarry caves full of wine, on a tour given entirely in French. The Handlers had no idea what was being said, but they liked the tasting that went along with the tour!

Our rapid route back through Amboise took us up streets like this. Yeah, Handler 2 is having a great time driving.

We arrived at Clos Luce at 5:08, saw the sign clearly indicating that the site closed at 6pm, and went inside...only to be pushed back out again by a rather insistent woman repeatedly saying that the place was "ferme".

Okay, so in France closing times are kind of a "suggestion". French sites may close anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour before their posted closing times. You know what I call that? Yeah, I thought so. You all know, so I don't have to breach the sanctity of this blog with bad words (children could be reading, you know).

Having been kicked out of Clos Luce, and with daylight to burn, we decided to accomplish something that had been weighing on us for a little while, that being the state of our clothes. We needed to wash them, and there was a laundrette about 3 blocks from our hotel.

So, what with having to ask some local kids how to work the machines (no, it was not intuitive) possibly overloading our washer ("Oh dear God, it's the washer of doom!"), and not having time for a second load in the dryer, this was the resulting scene in our bathroom that evening.

We had a nice dinner reservation in the restaurant downstairs...which resulted in a rather funny incident that the Handlers will have to tell you about sometime when there's more time for elabortion. There was lots of cheese and mushrooms involved, and that's all I'm at liberty to say right now.

Day 10 - Sarlat-la-Caneda: Where Geese Fear to Tread

Amboise's claim to fame is that Francois I gave a house located there to his good friend, and favorite painter, Leonardo Da Vinci. Da Vinci spent the last 3 years of his life here, making sketches of the Amboise chateau and developing more ingenious inventions that (then modern) science did not have sufficient power to operate. The house, known as Clos Luce, was actually open this morning.

The garden of the house was filled with scale (sort of working) models of some of the inventions from Da Vinci's notebooks. The whole place was very hands on. According to Handler 2, it was a lot like Greenfield Village...except entirely about Leonardo Da Vinci.

Here's Handler 2 playing with the Archimedes screw.

After playing with all the fun stuff in Da Vinci's garden (he even had a jungle gym!) we decided it was time to hit the road for our next destination. We headed generally south towards Sarlat, passing through the city of Limoges. Originally, Handler 1 had planned to make a stop in this town to visit a porcelain factory, however, she belatedly determined that they were all closed on Sundays, and so instead we passed on through and made it to the Dordogne region ahead of schedule.

Having a bit of time on our hands we decided to see if we could fit in a site or two. We decided to go to the Lascaux caves...no, not the real Lascaux caves...those have been closed since the 60's, but a replica which was made to show you what the neolithic pictures inside should look like. The Handlers embarked on yet another completely unintelligible French tour, during which they were prohibited from taking photos. The pictures of prehistoric animals were nice, but we would have preferred to at least have and English language flyer telling us something about them. We couldn't even buy an interpretive book about the caves afterwards becuase the book shop was closed when we left. Seriously, who closes a book shop before the last tour of the day gets out? Not only that, they locked up the collectable coin machine (Handler 2 is in one of his "collecting" phases...bear with him).

After that we headed to our Sarlat hotel which appears to be entirely furnished by IKEA. Strangely. absolutely everything (including the lights in your room) are controlled by your room key card. We then walked into the old medieval town to look for some dinner.

So, before the trip, Handler 1's stucdies had shown that the Dordogne was famous for its production of black truffles and foie gras; she just wasn't aware exactly how into the local produce they are in Sarlat. You can seriously purchase foie gras in every corner store. You can get it as an appetizer in every restaurant (no matter how minor). The whole place appears to be dedicated to killing geese. They have an entirely goose-based economy.

Tomorrow, we go to see real Cro-Magon caves! And, possibly get the Plucky Puegot fixed.

Quote of the Day: "No, the Mexican wrestlers are Nazis, too. See, he's got a swastika arm band." (Commentary on French TV)